Perspectives I

Here's a couple of 4th of July photos taken while I was working at a local newspaper. Most of the previous photos I'd seen from this day were of fireworks surrounded by black sky or wide angle shots showing partially-lit crowds observing them. Instead of doing that for this assignment, I thought it'd be interesting to see what it looked like from the Pyrotechnicians' side of it, and to get a closer look at the preparation that goes into an event like this.
I showed up at the Rochester Fairgrounds a bit early to explain some of the ideas that I had, and after a brief safety talk with everyone, the show began.It was quite a rush being so close to what were essentially bombs being launched skyward then exploding in a shower of colors directly overhead; certainly an experience and view I'd never seen before. Instead of shooting upward for a photo though, I wanted to focus on the people lighting the fuses and combine them with the fireworks somehow.
After noticing a few glimpses of silhouettes standing in front of these vertical fireballs, I knew that was the shot, and got this one of a fireman with his back turned to a newly lit fuse.
There's a few things that add up to make this photo, but what I really like is the convection pattern of the sparks moving above the fire, and how that seems to frame everything below it.
These are the types of details I look for when I'm out photographing the same subjects; details I might not have found had I been searching for new photos from the same perspective.
As photographers, or as humans for that matter, we can always wonder and ask ourselves what the same thing might look like from another angle and what that view could teach us about the complete picture.

Weather Report

Cameras don't know what the weather is. They don’t think and have emotions about it like the person holding it does, and whether or not a picture will be made isn’t up to the camera. They merely capture and translate a scene through the photographer’s decisions. So if that same photographer decides to not take out their camera on a gray, rainy day because they don’t particularly like gray and rainy days, or any other adverse condition, then no photographs will be made and the world will continue to spin.
However, when the photographer decides that they are going to go photograph on a rainy day, it opens them up to a whole new world of possibilities. When it's raining everything looks different. Water is everywhere. Surfaces are glistening, buildings are reflecting, puddles are forming, people are dressed differently. This is a perfect time to get photos that wouldn’t look like that if it weren’t raining!

World Cup Snowboarding

Sunday River in Maine hosted this years' World Cup in the United States, and I had another opportunity to be near these Olympic athletes. Friday's events were cancelled due to the incredibly thick fog that surrounded the area, but Saturday's blue sky provided for a full day of action on the slopes.

Here's a selection of some of my favorites.

Bradford Washburn Prints

Panopticon Gallery in Boston announced today an exhibition showing prints by master mountain photographer and New England native, Bradford Washburn. The prints will be on view from March 5th - May 6th, 2009 at the gallery, which is located inside the Hotel Commonwealth at 502c Commonwealth Avenue. Check out their website here for more information.

Boston Gourmet

I was photographing a variety of buildings around Boston last week, and also met up with a chef and his cooking students. All the ingredients had great color and the entire place smelled incredible!

Here's a photo showing how simple gourmet cooking can get -->

Pineapple, melted butter, brown sugar, hot oven, take out and repeat melted butter and brown sugar, finish roasting until looks done. Add a scoop of mascarpone to it, or even a bigger scoop of french vanilla ice cream.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Blackvoices.com also has a nice selection of images of this prophetic leader.

Electronic Magazines

Adventure photographer, Stephen Alvarez, is the man behind Picture Stories. He likes caves and more caves. Earlier in November he posted an interesting link to Conservation International's new electronic magazine, Team Earth, which gives a look at where print versions could be in the future.
It's an interactive program that you're able to click through, and what I like is that these click-throughs have ends. Unlike the web where everything is connected and you can get very far from where you began, missing information in the process, Team Earth lets you click through a variety of text, and once you've read the information box that pops up, you can move right along to the next page; it's all wrapped up in a neat little package. The download takes a few minutes, and even if you're not interested in the material there, it's worth taking a look at the design.